The present invention relates generally to switching systems, and more specifically to an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching system.
According to the CCITT (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee) Recommendation specifying the format of 53-byte length cells for ATM switching systems, 48 bytes are assigned to the user information field and 5 bytes to the header field in which the virtual call identifier, priority and address information are contained. With the proposed ATM switching system using the Banyan self-routing network, each successive bit of the virtual call identifier is examined at each stage of the Banyan network to locate an output port of the stage Since the Banyan network is made up of as many stages as there are bits in the virtual call identifier, the total amount of time taken to switch the cell through the network is substantial to implement high speed switching.